儿童的几何图形预期表象

将儿童几何图形预期表象分为两种水平,即再认水平的预期表象和生成水平的预期表象。采用“平移”、“对称”、“重叠”三种平面几何图形的预期表象作业和“展开”、“旋转”、“截面”三种立体几何图形的预期表象作业考察了3至12岁儿童几何图形预期表象的发生和发展。结果表明：儿童再认预期表象的发生早于生成预期表象的发生;儿童预期表象的发生和发展明显受几何图形类型和作业类型的制约     

假言推理判定标准的发展性研究

以充分条件和必要条件假言推理题目为测验材料,对小学四年级、初中二年级、高中二年级和大学二年级共469名被试进行了测量。结果表明:(1)内容和形式两种判断标准从小学四年级就开始发展了,但是小学生和中学生还是根据经验事实来进行判断,直到大学才摆脱经验事实的束缚。(2)必要条件推理的能力发展要早于充分条件推理的能力,而且最后能够达到的水平也要高。(3)被试对规则掌握的先后顺序是肯定前件式、否认前件式、肯定后件式和否认后件式。(4)被试是否受到信念偏见效应的影响,还要看题目是否符合事实以及是否符合逻辑规则。     

Differences in attentional strategies by novice and experienced operating theatre scrub nurses

This study investigated the effect of nursing experience on attention allocation and task performance during surgery. The prevention of cases of retained foreign bodies after surgery typically depends on scrub nurses, who are responsible for performing multiple tasks that impose heavy demands on the nurses' cognitive resources. However, the relationship between the level of experiences and attention allocation strategies has not been extensively studied. Eye movement data were collected from 10 novice and 10 experienced scrub nurses in the operating theater for caesarean section surgeries. Visual scanning data, analyzed by dividing the workstation into four main areas and the surgery into four stages, were compared to the optimum expected value estimated by SEEV (Salience, Effort, Expectancy, and Value) model. Both experienced and novice nurses showed significant correlations to the optimal percentage dwell time values, and significant differences were found in attention allocation optimality between experienced and novice nurses, with experienced nurses adhering significantly more to the optimal in the stages of high workload. Experienced nurses spent less time on the final count and encountered fewer interruptions during the count than novices indicating better performance in task management, whereas novice nurses switched attention between areas of interest more than experienced nurses. The results provide empirical evidence of a relationship between the application of optimal visual attention management strategies and performance, opening up possibilities to the development of visual attention and interruption training for better performance.     

Differential Roles of Physical Attractiveness and Earning Capability in Explaining Sense of Power among Dating Individuals in China: A Gender Comparison

This cross-sectional study examined how self-assessed physical attractiveness and earning capability were associated with individuals’ sense of power through self-perceived mating success and investment size in romantic relationships among 196 young adults (88 men, 98 women) from Nanjing, China. Using path analysis, we tested the following hypotheses: self-assessed physical attractiveness would be more strongly associated with self-perceived mating success among women than men, whereas self-assessed earning capability would be more strongly linked to self-perceived mating success among men than women (H1); relative physical attractiveness, as compared to their partners’, would be more strongly associated with men’s rather than women’s self-perceived investment size, whereas relative earning capability would be more strongly related to women’s rather than men’s investment size (H2); for both men and women, self-perceived mating success would be positively associated with sense of power, whereas self-perceived investment size would be negatively associated with sense of power (H3). Results indicated that self-perceived physical attractiveness and earning capability were associated with self-perceived mating success similarly for both men and women, failing to support H1. Whereas relative physical attractiveness was negatively associated with investment in the relationship similarly for two genders, the negative association between relative earning capacity and investment size was only significant for women. H2 was partially supported. Finally, self-perceived mating success and investment size were significantly associated with sense of power in the expected directions for both genders, lending support to our H3. Results are discussed in light of gender differences in mate preferences and the investment theory.     

Living with Gratitude: Spouse’s Gratitude on One’s Depression

Research has shown that gratitude makes people happier (McCullough and Tsang in Psychol Gratitude, Oxford University Press, pp 123–141, 2004; Wood et al. in Clin Psychol Rev 30(7):890–905, 2010), healthier (McCullough et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol, 86(2):295–309, 2004), more considerate (Bartlett and DeSteno in Psychol Sci 17(4):319–325, 2006), and better evaluated (Gordon et al. in Pers Individ Differ 50(3):339–343, 2011), enabling more stable relationships (Algoe et al. in Pers Relationsh 17(2):217–233, 2010; Algoe et al. in Emotion 8(3):425–429, 2008; Lambert et al. in Psychol Sci 21(4):574–580, 2010). However, no study has extended research beyond individual persons to investigate the impact of one’s gratitude on the mental well-being of those who surround her or him. Thus, we tested this possibility and found in Study 1 that within marriage, husbands’ depositional gratitude negatively correlated with their wives’ depressive emotion. The results of Study 2 validated Study 1 by showing that a wife’s depression would be relatively palliated if her husband was assigned to express appreciation to her and not share daily hassles. While a causal relationship was demonstrated as hypothesized, a difference between genders also emerged. We discuss in particular the latter in terms of its mechanism, limitations, and practical implications for marriage.     

Visually perceived eye level and horizontal midline of the body trunk influenced by optic flow

The eye level and the horizontal midline of the body trunk can serve, respectively, as references for judging the vertical and horizontal egocentric directions. We investigated whether the optic-flow pattern, which is the dynamic motion information generated when one moves in the visual world, can be used by the visual system to determine and calibrate these two references. Using a virtual-reality setup to generate the optic-flow pattern, we showed that judged elevation of the eye level and the azimuth of the horizontal midline of the body trunk are biased toward the positional placement of the focus of expansion (FOE) of the optic-flow pattern. Furthermore, for the vertical reference, prolonged viewing of an optic-flow pattern with lowered FOE not only causes a lowered judged eye level after removal of the optic-flow pattern, but also an overestimation of distance in the dark. This is equivalent to a reduction in the judged angular declination of the object after adaptation, indicating that the optic-flow information also plays a role in calibrating the extraretinal signals used to establish the vertical reference.     

What does it mean to trust blockchain technology?

This paper argues that the widespread belief that interactions between blockchains and their users are trust-free is inaccurate and misleading, since this belief not only overlooks the vital role played by trust in the lack of knowledge and control but also conceals the moral and normative relevance of relying on blockchain applications. The paper reaches this argument by providing a close philosophical examination of the concept referred to as trust in blockchain technology, clarifying the trustor group, the structure, and the normatively loaded nature of this trust relation. The paper ends by critically reflecting on two of the most promising values (decentralization and transparency) that can invite users’ trust in blockchain technology, arguing that there is a tension between the pressing values that are intended to be achieved by developers and the predicament situations caused by current blockchain implementations.     

The Language of Thought and The Embodied Nature of Language Use

Philosophical Studies -     

Different Effects of Paternal and Maternal Attachment on Psychological Health Among Chinese Secondary School Students

Many studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of parental attachment on adolescent development. However, few studies have specifically investigated the different effects of paternal attachment and maternal attachment on adolescent development. The current study examined the different effects of paternal attachment and maternal attachment on adolescent psychological health (e.g., self-esteem, depression, life-satisfaction), and the moderating roles of gender, age, and one-child status. Participants were 1506 secondary school students (50.2 % male, grades 7–12) from six regions of China. Results suggested that paternal attachment had stronger effects on adolescents’ depressive symptoms than did maternal attachment after controlling for all covariates (e.g., family setting, gender, grade, one-child status, father’s and mother’s education levels). Moreover, multi-group analysis indicated that the stronger impact of paternal attachment on depressive symptoms in comparison to maternal attachment was only evident in high school boys and only children. This study demonstrated the important role of father–adolescent attachment in adolescent psychological health. Future research, clinical implications, and limitations of the present study are discussed.